Let Me Down Slowly
by DarkPoisonousLove
Summary: Griffin didn't think leaving her position as Valtor's partner would be easy. But when Valtor catches her trying to escape, it turns out that it's not his wrath that she has to fear. Set pre-series. Rated T just to be safe.


**A/N: I was looking at some prompts and this happened. Hope you enjoy. Reviews are always appreciated.**

She waited for nightfall. It was clichéd, really, sneaking out in the dead of night, using the cover of darkness to escape a force much darker than anything else that could exist. A mission impossible in the light of day.

"Are you really going to leave without asking me the question you've been dying to ask me?" Valtor's voice caught her off guard before she'd even made it to the door of her own room.

His presence startled her and she had to bite into her lower lip to prevent any unbidden sound from falling from her mouth. Her heart had leapt in her throat and was pounding madly as if trying to claw its way out and go back to where it belonged. But there was no place for her at Valtor's side anymore.

Griffin tried to keep that in mind as she slowly turned to face him. "I'm leaving because I know the answer." She gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to let the tears prickling her eyelids flow. She couldn't allow her feelings to cloud her judgment. Not now that Valtor had caught her and was ready to use all of his weapons against her. Heaven knew she'd given him too many of those, unable to guard her heart better when she was around him.

"If that were true, you wouldn't even have a chance to leave." His voice was quiet as if the bitterness of her words had wounded him, but also because of the implication of his own words that left him so exposed to her when she was clearly on her path to betraying him.

"What are you saying?" Griffin asked, unsure if she could trust him. It could be a trick. It certainly sounded too good to be true. Yet, she held her breath in anticipation of his answer, causing her pulse to speed up even more, her blood rushing through her veins furiously.

Valtor shook his head slightly, making her heart sink. "Nothing. Because you haven't asked me anything." His tone was still quiet. He didn't sound anything like his usual arrogant self. Instead, he was insecure. He was never insecure.

"Will you really let me go?" Griffin asked and the pain in his eyes caused by her distrust was almost enough to convince her to stay because she knew him – he never let her see his weaknesses. But because she knew him, she couldn't trust him. He didn't fight fair. So she needed a straightforward answer to believe him. Just one simple answer.

"I haven't stopped you." That wasn't it. She wondered how he would've answered her actual question if he couldn't even bring himself to answer the one he'd just dodged. But then again, she didn't want to ask it. No more than he wanted to answer it. They were both well aware of that.

"But you're trying to," her voice betrayed her, making it sound almost like a question. She wanted to believe he'd confronted her because he wanted her to stay, not because he wanted to destroy her. But the truth was that she wasn't even sure why he'd come to her room. He'd toyed with her and her feelings before. Why should now be any different?

"Is that a question?" He was asking so little of her. She only had to say 'yes'. But that was asking too much of her.

"No," she said. For if she asked him a question, he might actually answer it. And she wasn't sure she was ready to hear that answer. "Just an observation," she averted her gaze.

Valtor nodded. "I have a question for you," he stepped closer, causing her gaze to find his face again. "Will you leave?" he fired out at her before he could change his mind.

This time she only had to say 'no'. It was so simple, so easy. But it hadn't even been easy when she'd said it a few seconds ago. And now it would mean so much more. "You haven't asked me to stay," she said instead. So many more words, and yet, they were so much easier to say, even though they were still dangerous. They changed the game. Now she needed him to ask her one question. The right question. But she wasn't sure he would if she couldn't answer.

"Would that change your mind?" He locked eyes with her, the hope in his voice tearing at her heart. She had to answer. She had to. But she couldn't. Because it wasn't the right question.

She held his gaze. "I really don't know." And that was the worst thing she could say. It left them both hanging, inches apart but still so far away from each other.

"I think you do," he said and he was right. If anything could change her mind, she wouldn't have been trying to leave in the first place. But it didn't matter that she loved him. It didn't even matter if he loved her. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he was ready to do whatever it took to get what he wanted, and she wasn't. "We both do."

He moved away and turned around before he disappeared, leaving her alone. He left her as if she wasn't worth his time and his efforts, and it hurt so much. She could barely feel her heart beat, ripped apart as it was. But she deserved it because she was the one who was leaving him and he'd already given her more than she could've hoped for. He let her leave him. He let her hurt him so that he wouldn't hurt her. He let her betray him. And she did.

She joined the Company of Light that put an end to his life after he'd saved hers. He might have let her go, but the Ancestral Witches would have killed her if Faragonda hadn't saved her. She'd been alerted by an unknown source that Griffin was in danger and had opened the portal that had led her to safety at Alfea. Only, the source wasn't unknown to Griffin.

Valtor had sent a message that had led him to imprisonment in the Omega dimension. He'd saved her life and had given her the opportunity to betray him, and she'd grabbed at it as if it were her lifeline. And in a sense, it had been. Because as long as Valtor's fire burned brightly out there, calling to her, there would be a little shadow left in the Company of Light that threatened to engulf the entire Universe in darkness.


End file.
